Living concrete photosynthesizes, reproduces itself – thanks to gelatin..
The New York Times covers a building material that could be a boon to the planet, a bacteria-enriched concrete that cleans the air and grows […]
microbiology
Gut bacteria can help the brain conquer fear; antibiotics can make PTSD recovery harder.
Science magazine explores the gut-brain connection further with a study that finds gut bacteria can help us get over our fear responses… unless antibiotics have […]
SONG: Multicellular
SONG: “Multicellular” [Download] . ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Science News, 17 October 2019, “Acrobatic choanoflagellates could help explain how multicellularity evolved,” as used in the post […]
How we became multicellular
Science News reveals the strange habits of little single-celled swimming organisms called “choanoflagellates” that tend to gather together in clusters for specialized tasks – which […]
Disabling one protein might (finally) cure the common cold. Thing is, the protein’s not in the germ – it’s in us.
Science News takes rhinovirus by the (one) horn with a study that finds a weak spot in the way the germ spreads inside our cells: […]
There are a lot of viruses in the Arctic ice – and they can show us where carbon is sinking.
Science News has a novel way to map out potential climate change – by tracking where new viruses are showing up in the ocean: Water […]
Harvesting the hot-water bacteria that “eat and breathe” electricity.
Science Daily shouts about a Washington State University team that headed out to the geysers and hot springs of Yellowstone to cultivate a relationship with […]
SONG: Quantum Biology
SONG: “Quantum Biology” [Download] . ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Scientific American, Vol. 27, Dec. 2018, “’Schrödinger’s Bacterium’ Could Be a Quantum Biology Milestone”, as used in […]
A living tattoo that’s also a computer.
Science Daily reveals how MIT researchers used 3D printing to create the world’s first temporary tattoo made from living cells that act as sensors or […]
Science Art: Plate C from The rotifera; or, Wheel-animalcules, both British and foreign, 1889
Click to embiggen Teeny tiny critters, hanging out in the water. They’ve got cilia in a circle, waving around their tops as if they were […]
SONG: I Had A Fever
SONG: “I Had A Fever” [Download] . ARTIST: grant. SOURCE:Can Microbes Encourage Altruism?,” Scientific American, 17 Jul 2017, as used in the post “Does kindness […]
Does kindness come from germs? Are the better angels of our nature really a contagious infection?
Scientific American takes a cold, calculating look at research into the origins of our behavior. Just like parasites can spur suicidal behavior in certain hosts […]
Bad gut bacteria can cause high blood pressure.
Sure, it might be the salty food, but Science Daily says, based on work by the American Physiological Society, that the microbes in your intestines […]
These germs join carbon to silicon.
Nature reports on a critter in Iceland’s hot springs that binds silicon to carbon – which could lead to all sorts of weird breakthroughs: Researchers […]
Science Art: “Various Forms of Trachelomonas” (detail of “INFUSORIA”), 1883
Aren’t they the cutest little things? These are kinds of Euglena, the weird little microscopic critters that are animals with plant-like characteristics – some of […]